Act II, Scene vii:
On board POMPEY'S Galley, lying near Misenum.

[Music. Enter two or three SERVANTS with a banquet.]

FIRST SERVANT:

Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are ill-rooted

already; the least wind i' the world will blow them down.

SECOND SERVANT:

Lepidus is high-coloured.

FIRST SERVANT:

They have made him drink alms-drink.

SECOND SERVANT:

As they pinch one another by the disposition, he cries out 'no

more'; reconciles them to his entreaty and himself to the drink.

FIRST SERVANT:

But it raises the greater war between him and his discretion.

SECOND SERVANT:

Why, this it is to have a name in great men's fellowship: I had

as lief have a reed that will do me no service as a partizan I

could not heave.

FIRST SERVANT:

To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in't,

are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the

cheeks.

[A sennet sounded. Enter CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POMPEY,AGRIPPA, MAECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, with other Captains.]

ANTONY:

[To CAESAR.] Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o' the Nile

By certain scales i' the pyramid; they know

By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth

Or foison follow: the higher Nilus swells

The more it promises; as it ebbs, the seedsman

Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,

And shortly comes to harvest.

LEPIDUS:

You've strange serpents there.

ANTONY:

Ay, Lepidus.

LEPIDUS:

Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of

your sun: so is your crocodile.

ANTONY:

They are so.

POMPEY:

Sit—and some wine!—A health to Lepidus!

LEPIDUS:

I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out.

ENOBARBUS:

Not till you have slept; I fear me you'll be in till then.

LEPIDUS:

Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises are very

goodly things; without contradiction I have heard that.

MENAS:

[Aside to POMPEY.] Pompey, a word.

POMPEY:

[Aside to MENAS.] Say in mine ear: what is't?

MENAS:

[Aside to POMPEY.] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain,

And hear me speak a word.

POMPEY:

[Aside to MENAS.] Forbear me till ano.n—

This wine for Lepidus!

LEPIDUS:

What manner o' thing is your crocodile?

ANTONY:

It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad as it hath

breadth: it is just so high as it is, and moves with it own

organs: it lives by that which nourisheth it, and the elements

once out of it, it transmigrates.

LEPIDUS:

What colour is it of?

ANTONY:

Of its own colour too.

LEPIDUS:

'Tis a strange serpent.

ANTONY:

'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.

CAESAR:

Will this description satisfy him?

ANTONY:

With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure.

POMPEY:

[Aside to MENAS.] Go, hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that! away!

Do as I bid you.—Where's this cup I call'd for?

MENAS:

[Aside to POMPEY.] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,

Rise from thy stool.

POMPEY:

[Aside to MENAS.] I think thou'rt mad.

[Rises and walks aside.]

The matter?

MENAS:

I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.

POMPEY:

Thou hast serv'd me with much faith.

What's else to say?—

Be jolly, lords.

ANTONY:

These quicksands, Lepidus,

Keep off them, for you sink.

MENAS:

Wilt thou be lord of all the world?

POMPEY:

What say'st thou?

MENAS:

Wilt thou be lord of the whole world?

That's twice.

POMPEY:

How should that be?

MENAS:

But entertain it,

And though you think me poor, I am the man

Will give thee all the world.

POMPEY:

Hast thou drunk well?

MENAS:

No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup.

Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove:

Whate'er the ocean pales or sky inclips

Is thine, if thou wilt have't.

POMPEY:

Show me which way.

MENAS:

These three world-sharers, these competitors,

Are in thy vessel: let me cut the cable;

And when we are put off, fall to their throats:

All then is thine.

POMPEY:

Ah, this thou shouldst have done,

And not have spoke on't! In me 'tis villainy:

In thee't had been good service. Thou must know

'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour:

Mine honour it. Repent that e'er thy tongue

Hath so betray'd thine act: being done unknown,

I should have found it afterwards well done;

But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink.

MENAS:

[Aside.] For this,

I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.

Who seeks, and will not take when once 'tis offer'd,

Shall never find it more.

POMPEY:

This health to Lepidus!

ANTONY:

Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey.

ENOBARBUS:

Here's to thee, Menas!

MENAS:

Enobarbus, welcome!

POMPEY:

Fill till the cup be hid.

ENOBARBUS:

There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the servant who carries off LEPIDUS.]

MENAS:

Why?

ENOBARBUS:

'A bears the third part of the world, man; see'st not?

MENAS:

The third part, then, is drunk; would it were all,

That it might go on wheels!

ENOBARBUS:

Drink thou; increase the reels.

MENAS:

Come.

POMPEY:

This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.

ANTONY:

It ripens towards it.—Strike the vessels, ho!—

Here is to Caesar!

CAESAR:

I could well forbear't.

It's monstrous labour when I wash my brain

And it grows fouler.

ANTONY:

Be a child o' the time.

CAESAR:

Possess it, I'll make answer:

But I had rather fast from all four days

Than drink so much in one.

ENOBARBUS:

[To ANTONY.] Ha, my brave emperor!

Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals

And celebrate our drink?

POMPEY:

Let's ha't, good soldier.

ANTONY:

Come, let's all take hands,

Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense

In soft and delicate Lethe.

ENOBARBUS:

All take hands.—

Make battery to our ears with the loud music:—

The while I'll place you: then the boy shall sing;

The holding every man shall bear as loud

As his strong sides can volley.

[Music plays. ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand.]

SONG:

Come, thou monarch of the vine,

Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!

In thy fats our cares be drown'd,

With thy grapes our hairs be crown'd:

Cup us, till the world go round,

Cup us, till the world go round!

CAESAR:

What would you more?—Pompey, good night. Good brother,

Let me request you off: our graver business

Frowns at this levity.—Gentle lords, let's part;

You see we have burnt our cheeks: strong Enobarb

Is weaker than the wine; and mine own tongue

Splits what it speaks: the wild disguise hath almost

Antick'd us all. What needs more words. Good night.—

Good Antony, your hand.

POMPEY:

I'll try you on the shore.

ANTONY:

And shall, sir: give's your hand.

POMPEY:

O Antony,

You have my father's house,—but, what? we are friends.

Come, down into the boat.

ENOBARBUS:

Take heed you fall not.

[Exeunt POMPEY, CAESAR, ANTONY, and Attendants.]

Menas, I'll not on shore.

MENAS:

No, to my cabin.—

These drums!—these trumpets, flutes! what!—

Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell

To these great fellows: sound and be hang'd, sound out!

[A flourish of trumpets, with drums.]

ENOBARBUS:

Hoo! says 'a.—There's my cap.

MENAS:

Hoo!—noble captain, come.

[Exeunt.]